Hello Singapore! We're Hoping to Have a Beary Nice Stay :P

On arrival in Sydney my friends and I wasted no time in catching a taxi to the formula one hotel where we would be staying the night before leaving for the airport early the next day. id stayed at at a formula one before so i knew what to expect, minimal facilities and space, but that was fine with us as this was a very temporary arrangement. to my surprise the taxi driver took us right into the city and into the area of kings cross commonly known for is violence and drug users/abuses. this was defiantly not the same hotel id stayed in before. we checked in and went upstairs to explore our room. it was just as I expected and as an added bonus, and to our great amusement, all three light switches in the room controlled the main light (what can  say, we re simple men :P).

after dumping our bags in the room we set off to have a walk around the city. the first thing which drew our attention was the large police presence in the area - kings cross was living up to its name. as we walked more and more of them began to appear. Some rode on horse back while others walked briskly or ran through the street in groups while still more led large german sheppard dogs and drove vans and cars lights flashing and sirens echoing through the city. something big was happening but it wasn't until later that we found out what that was. (i will add more detail here later!) despite all this we wernt deterred and we continued our walk into the city centre before walking back to the hotel and retiring for the night.   

My friends and I embarked from our hotel at the ungodly hour of  5:30 in the morning to catch our 8 hour flight from Sydney to Singapore. being first time travellers we weren't sure how much time to allow ourselves to get to the airport and mistakably only gave ourselves two and a half hours. after catching the airport shuttle bus to the international terminal which seemed to take an age we soon discovered a sizeable queue at the singapore airlines check in. with only one and a half hours left and a monstrous line in front of us we decided to take a chance at a faster option and got joey to jump into another smaller queue for internet customers only. he got to the counter and called us over, everything seemed to be okay but as knipler and i arrived we were met with the scowling face of the lady operating at the desk. apparently we weren't supposed to have been in this queue and seemed to be facing a sorry trudge back the the end of the line we had just come from. luckily for us she wasn't as cold hearted as she looked and checked us in on the spot (i have a suspicion that she knew how late we were and so let us through). clearing customs and security was remarkably easy compared to other trips id been on and before we knew it we were in the air! 

on touching down in Singapore a wave of hot humid air hit us as we stepped off the plane. it was going to be hot here, a nice change from our chilly unreliable canberra weather. again customs was a breeze and we were soon in a taxi heading towards the city. the driver was a singaporean man and we all soon got to talking. he had alot of very positive things to say about the country and he talked about its high levels of safety, its cleanliness, its schooling system. he was a very patriotic man and obviousy had a deep love for his country. as we got close to the area in which our hostel is located decorations started springing up all over the street. apparently the chinese autumn festival was on and our hostel was situated right in the middle of it all in the heart of china town. it couldn't be more perfect! after settling in to our shared dorm (something which we are all still getting used to) at the beary nice hostel we went for a long walk around the city. singapore is such a modern looking place with tall skyscrapers and apartment blocks dominating the skyline. there are a multitude of these architectural stunning buildings every ware and many more seem to be under construction in this quickly expanding city. we managed to walk all the way to the water where we discovered a massive shopping centre, it was nothing like what we have back in canberra and featured a canal on the bottom floor were if you chose you could have a boat ride though the mall. i think im going to really enjoy my time here in this beautiful country and hopefully ill post again soon as i have more to add here about the country! :) ill edit this tonight when i get the chance ;P haha